In the conversation, I mentioned Sathya Sai Baba, an Indian guru who claimed to have performed a variety of miracles, including raising people from the dead. He has a large following, including Uri Geller and Alice (wife of John) Coltraine, and some of his devotees say that they have witnessed him perform miracles such as healings, raising people from the dead, clairvoyance, bilocation.

Many of the miracles seem to have a distinct echo of the miracles attributed to Jesus in the Bible, though in the case of Sathya Sai Baba there are many people available to give apparently sincere testimony of the miracles.

]]>Fr John Peck is a priest in the American Orthodox Church, an Eastern Rite church which has strong links to […]Fr John Peck is a priest in the American Orthodox Church, an Eastern Rite church which has strong links to […]Challenging Opinions >>clean26:23Uncategorizedhttp://podcast.challengingopinions.com/2017/08/14/co041-fr-john-peck-on-replacements-for-religion/CO040 Sharyl Attkisson on Manipulating the Newshttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ChallengingOpinions/~3/dqX42tY7SYc/
Mon, 07 Aug 2017 09:00:52 +0000podcast@ChallengingOpinions.com (William Campbell)http://podcast.challengingopinions.com/?p=372Sharyl Attkisson is the presenter of Full Measure with Sharyl Attkisson, and a former news anchor for CBS and CNN. She has won Emmy awards for Investigative Journalism and Business and Financial Reporting.

]]>Sharyl Attkisson is the presenter of Full Measure with Sharyl Attkisson, and a former news anchor for CBS and CNN. […]Sharyl Attkisson is the presenter of Full Measure with Sharyl Attkisson, and a former news anchor for CBS and CNN. […]Challenging Opinions >>clean19:35Uncategorizedhttp://podcast.challengingopinions.com/2017/08/07/co040-sharyl-attkisson-on-manipulating-the-news/CO039 Peter Balint on Tolerancehttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ChallengingOpinions/~3/n_UTDVqBmyc/
Mon, 31 Jul 2017 09:00:40 +0000podcast@ChallengingOpinions.com (William Campbell)http://podcast.challengingopinions.com/?p=362Dr Peter Balint is a senior lecturer in International & Political Studies at the
School of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of New South Wales, Canberra, Australia. His book, Respecting Toleration Traditional Liberalism and Contemporary Diversity was published recently by Oxford University Press.

In our discussion, I mentioned Pastafarianism, the parody religion that purports to worship Flying Spaghetti Monster, whose supposed adherents sometimes insist on accommodations that parody those of real religions, such as demanding the right to wear religious head-coverings – a colander – in photos government IDs where authorities allow that exception for other belief systems.

]]>Dr Peter Balint is a senior lecturer in International & Political Studies at the School of Humanities and Social Sciences […]Dr Peter Balint is a senior lecturer in International & Political Studies at the School of Humanities and Social Sciences […]Challenging Opinions >>clean32:24Uncategorizedhttp://podcast.challengingopinions.com/2017/07/31/co039-peter-balint-on-tolerance/CO038 Ryan Alford on The Rule of Lawhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ChallengingOpinions/~3/RmigWh8Qww8/
Mon, 24 Jul 2017 09:00:59 +0000podcast@ChallengingOpinions.com (William Campbell)http://podcast.challengingopinions.com/?p=356Ryan Alford is an associate professor at the Bora Laskin Faculty of Law at Lakehead University, Ontario, and he’s also a US-qualified lawyer.

]]>Ryan Alford is an associate professor at the Bora Laskin Faculty of Law at Lakehead University, Ontario, and he’s also […]Ryan Alford is an associate professor at the Bora Laskin Faculty of Law at Lakehead University, Ontario, and he’s also […]Challenging Opinions >>clean25:19Uncategorizedhttp://podcast.challengingopinions.com/2017/07/24/co038-ryan-alford-on-the-rule-of-law/CO037 Jerry Newcombe on America as a Christian Nationhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ChallengingOpinions/~3/okPbjyw37ec/
Sun, 16 Jul 2017 09:00:06 +0000podcast@ChallengingOpinions.com (William Campbell)http://podcast.challengingopinions.com/?p=349Jerry Newcombe is an author and pastor, who has written The Unstoppbable Jesus Christ and The Book that Made America.

]]>Jerry Newcombe is an author and pastor, who has written The Unstoppbable Jesus Christ and The Book that Made America. […]Jerry Newcombe is an author and pastor, who has written The Unstoppbable Jesus Christ and The Book that Made America. […]Challenging Opinions >>clean32:32Uncategorizedhttp://podcast.challengingopinions.com/2017/07/16/co037-jerry-newcombe-on-america-as-a-christian-nation/CO036 Michael Huttner on how to Resist Trumphttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ChallengingOpinions/~3/Ltim5O-rrWk/
Mon, 26 Jun 2017 08:57:04 +0000podcast@ChallengingOpinions.com (William Campbell)http://podcast.challengingopinions.com/?p=345Michael Huttner is the co-author of The Resistance Handbook: 45 Ways to Fight Trump with Markos Moulitsas, published by Disruption Books.

]]>Michael Huttner is the co-author of The Resistance Handbook: 45 Ways to Fight Trump with Markos Moulitsas, published by Disruption […]Michael Huttner is the co-author of The Resistance Handbook: 45 Ways to Fight Trump with Markos Moulitsas, published by Disruption […]Challenging Opinions >>clean16:07Uncategorizedhttp://podcast.challengingopinions.com/2017/06/26/co036-michael-huttner-on-how-to-resist-trump/CO035 Dan Kovalik on the Vilification of Russiahttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ChallengingOpinions/~3/NhfYTY0JX6c/
Mon, 19 Jun 2017 09:00:54 +0000podcast@ChallengingOpinions.com (William Campbell)http://podcast.challengingopinions.com/?p=333Dan Kovalik is a human rights, labor rights lawyer and council for United Steelworkers Union.

]]>Dan Kovalik is a human rights, labor rights lawyer and council for United Steelworkers Union. His new book is called, […]Dan Kovalik is a human rights, labor rights lawyer and council for United Steelworkers Union. His new book is called, […]Challenging Opinions >>clean26:35Uncategorizedhttp://podcast.challengingopinions.com/2017/06/19/co035-dan-kovalik-on-the-vilification-of-russia/CO034 Richard Stratton on Being a Major Criminalhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ChallengingOpinions/~3/9olinqVKzQM/
Mon, 12 Jun 2017 09:00:21 +0000podcast@ChallengingOpinions.com (William Campbell)http://podcast.challengingopinions.com/?p=327Richard Stratton is the author of Kingpin: Prisoner of the War on Drugs, and previously wrote Smuggler’s Blues: A True Story of the Hippie Mafia. both published by Arcade Publishing.
]]>Richard Stratton is the author of Kingpin: Prisoner of the War on Drugs, and previously wrote Smuggler’s Blues: A True […]Richard Stratton is the author of Kingpin: Prisoner of the War on Drugs, and previously wrote Smuggler’s Blues: A True […]Challenging Opinions >>clean19:32Uncategorizedhttp://podcast.challengingopinions.com/2017/06/12/co034-richard-stratton-on-being-a-major-criminal/CO033 Tarek Fatah on Liberal Islamhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ChallengingOpinions/~3/hVrNRADavvU/
Mon, 29 May 2017 12:06:12 +0000podcast@ChallengingOpinions.com (William Campbell)http://podcast.challengingopinions.com/?p=319Tarek Fatah was born in Pakistan, he lives in Canadian now where he is a writer, broadcaster, activist, and writes a weekly column for the Toronto Sun. In our conversation, he mentioned some Muslims naming their children after Timur.

***

There’s a video that you should see.

It’s a drama made by the BBC, the British national broadcaster. I’m not sure how or when it will be shown outside the UK, but there are loads of clips online, I’ve even seen that on YouTube there are the whole of the three hour-long episodes, I’m not sure how legal that is, or how long they will stay up, but I’m sure you can find it on some service or other.

Another challenge, if you’re not from the UK, you might find some of the accents a bit of a challenge, so maybe try with subtitles; the reason for that is that it’s set in the northern English town of Rochdale.

Rochdale is a town close to Manchester, it’s got a population of about 100,000, and about a quarter of its population is of Asian origin, although measuring that is a bit tricky, it depends on whether you count just the town or the wider metro area, since Asians tend to live more centrally in the town.

And Rochdale is poor. And that is central to the video you should see. The video is a drama, it’s in three hour-long episodes, it’s called Three Girls, and the title characters are three young teenagers from Rochdale. They represent, according to the British government enquiry, more than 1,400 girls – I’m going to pause for you to take that number in, more than 1,400 girls who were sexually abused by men who chatted them up, gave them fast food, alcohol, sometimes drugs, and gained influence over them – what is called grooming. And having gained influence, they sexually abused the girls, raped them, and in some cases rented them out to be raped by other men.

This went on for years, and as well as the abuse on the girls, the drama looks at how the authorities reacted to what was going on. Most, but not all of the girls, came from quite poor backgrounds, some of them had chaotic lives, were alienated from their parents, in other words they didn’t have a strong adult presence protecting them.

The drama follows one community health worker who repeatedly reported the child abuse and rapes to the police, but they took little effective action, and the scandal, since exposed in a government report, was that two attitudes let this go on for years, although many men have now been convicted in relation to the case.

The first is that all of the perpetrators were Muslim men from a Pakistani or Afghan background and all the victims that we know of were white.

The second is that the girls didn’t look like middle class, well-spoken A-students. Some of them drank, had sex, stayed out late.

The combination of these two factors, it seems, paralyzed the authorities. They were so afraid of being seen to be racist, that they were walking on eggshells any time they dealt with ethnic minorities. They were anxious to find any other explanation than the obvious one, that hundreds of girls were being abused and raped. And there was one explanation that suited them. Many of the girls were not perfect candidates to be seen as blameless victims by a jury.

One scene in the film shows a police officer referring to the girls as underage prostitutes. The health worker replies that there is no such thing as an underage prostitute, she says that they are abuse victims.

There are two things to take away from this. The first is that victims are not always perfect. In this case, I would guess, the abusers targeted them for that exact reason. But they are still victims, and they still deserve justice. Justice is not justice if it’s not justice for all.

The second is that being against racism can’t mean being against reality. Some crimes are prosecuted in a racist way, there is no doubt about it. White and Black Americans use and sell marijuana in much the same proportions, but blacks are vastly more likely to be arrested for it.

But where crimes do follow a racial pattern there is nothing wrong with talking about that, and nothing wrong with acting on it.

And the third point is that some racial or cultural or religious practices – whatever you want to call it – are just disgusting and should be simply rejected. I don’t think you can get away from the fact that aspects of Islam are misogynistic, and that is connected with the abuse of women and girls, and that can be seen in many Islamic countries, and in the pattern of crimes that are committed by some immigrants from those countries.

Anyone who thinks that respecting diversity should mean not prosecuting those crimes to the full should take a long look at themselves.

***

One last thing, it’s notable that the prosecutor who overturned the original decision not to prosecute these rapists was a guy called Nazir Afzal, a first generation Pakistani immigrant, and I take two things away from that. First that not all Pakistani men are bad, and secondly, that there is no excuse for the ones who are.

Anyway go and look it up and watch the drama, it’s called Three girls.

]]>Tarek Fatah was born in Pakistan, he lives in Canadian now where he is a writer, broadcaster, activist, and writes […]Tarek Fatah was born in Pakistan, he lives in Canadian now where he is a writer, broadcaster, activist, and writes […]Challenging Opinions >>clean26:39Uncategorizedhttp://podcast.challengingopinions.com/2017/05/29/co033-tarek-fatah-on-liberal-islam/CO032 Rebecca Lemke on Purity Culture, Part 2http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ChallengingOpinions/~3/Fwzl5iJwXdI/
Mon, 22 May 2017 09:00:57 +0000podcast@ChallengingOpinions.com (William Campbell)http://podcast.challengingopinions.com/?p=316There are show notes from my interview with Rebecca Lemke with Part 1 of this interview.

***

I don’t like Julian Assange. I don’t know Julian Assange, the Wikileaks founder, and I probably shouldn’t make a judgment on him as a person based on what I see of him through the media, but my impression is that I wouldn’t like him as a person.

I get the impression that he is too self-important, too convinced of his own centrality to the story; I feel like he would be the sort of person who just talk about himself all the time. I don’t have any evidence for that, I suppose I’m the sort of person a defense lawyer should exclude from a jury for not coming with an open mind.

I shouldn’t have that impression, I shouldn’t have any impression given that you can never know somebody through their media persona, so I’m probably wrong to feel it, I’m probably wrong to feel anything, however I don’t feel like I like Julian Assange. That’s just it.

But. I really like the idea of Julian Assange. I like the way that he has exposed so many people’s hypocrisy.

If you remember back when he first became prominent, he was publishing anything that seemed like it was relevant to shining a light where democracy needed it. In 2007 – a decade ago, now – Wikileaks published a huge archive of evidence of corruption in Kenya, where the government was stealing billions from the people of that poor African country. The result was major political change there. Sunshine really was disinfectant.

Then Wikileaks published first the collateral murder video, and later the Afghan and Iraqi War logs, Diplomatic cables, Guantanamo Bay files and more, that we now know was passed on by Chelsea, then Bradley Manning. Anti-war people were delighted.

Conservatives, not so much. People who thought they loved freedom of speech suddenly weren’t so concerned with constitutional rights. Time magazine writer Michael Grunwald tweeted “I can’t wait to write a defense of the drone strike that takes out Julian Assange”

Then, in mysterious circumstances, Assange was put under investigation for an alleged rape in Sweden. He wasn’t charged or even formally accused, but Swedish authorities wanted to question him; he was already back in Britain, and despite offering to submit to questioning by the UK police, or even by Swedish police at the Swedish embassy in London, both the Swedish police and the British courts have insisted that he should be extradited to Sweden; just to be questioned, not even to be charged.

Assange said that this was a ruse to get him somewhere from where he could be extradited to the US. Neither the UK nor the Swedish governments would specifically deny this. And then there was the question of the strange way in which he was supposed to have raped the women. The rape consisted of not wearing a condom when he had agreed to do so, rather than having sex without consent, and there seemed to be evidence that the alleged victims were happy to socialize with Assange after the incident.

Last year, somebody hacked the DNC email servers and somebody – somebody whose name begins with P and ends with utin – gave all that information, or as much of it as suited him, to Assange who published it on Wikileaks.

This did the Clinton campaign no end of harm, and all of a sudden the right in the US thought that publishing hacked emails was a fine thing to do. No more talk of drone strikes, Sarah Palin even publicly apologized to Assange and praised him for doing to Hillary Clinton what she had called for him to be murdered for when he did it to her, to Palin.

And the left is now curiously silent about their former hero, they’re not nearly such enthusiastic supporters now that it seems that Assange played a part in putting Trump in the White House.

But the biggest hypocrites of all are the Men’s Rights advocates who five years ago raged against the Swedish justice system. Five years later Europe has had the refugee crisis, and it has become an article of faith amongst the MRA, which has morphed into the alt-right, that refugees are responsible for a hugely disproportionate number of rapes and sexual assaults, and that because Sweden accepted a relatively large number of refugees, that must be causing an epidemic of rape there.

So that’s the Julian Assange that I like. Not the person Julian Assange. The Julian Assange who exposes the hypocrisy of so many people right across the political spectrum.

]]>There are show notes from my interview with Rebecca Lemke with Part 1 of this interview. *** I don’t like Julian […]There are show notes from my interview with Rebecca Lemke with Part 1 of this interview. *** I don’t like Julian […]Challenging Opinions >>clean29:24Uncategorizedhttp://podcast.challengingopinions.com/2017/05/22/co032-rebecca-lemke-on-purity-culture/CO031 Christopher Snowdon on Fighting Obesityhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ChallengingOpinions/~3/kECMoAJpa9o/
Fri, 19 May 2017 09:00:23 +0000podcast@ChallengingOpinions.com (William Campbell)http://podcast.challengingopinions.com/?p=307Christopher Snowdon is the Head of Lifestyle Economics for the right-leaning Institute of Economic Affairs; he also writes for Spectator Health.

Childhood obesity has more than doubled in children and quadrupled in adolescents in the past 30 years.

The percentage of children aged 6–11 years in the United States who were obese increased from 7% in 1980 to nearly 18% in 2012. Similarly, the percentage of adolescents aged 12–19 years who were obese increased from 5% to nearly 21% over the same period.

In 2012, more than one third of children and adolescents were overweight or obese.

The Harvard School of Public Health says that young people are getting up to 30 per cent of their daily calories requirement from soft drinks. Beverage companies in the US spent roughly $3.2 billion marketing carbonated beverages in 2006, with nearly a half billion dollars of that marketing aimed directly at children.

Since the 1970s the proportion of calories from sugary drinks more than doubled from 4 per cent to 9 per cent.

The British Medical Association’s study in the BMJ reported that purchases of taxed beverages decreased by an average of 6%, and decreased at an increasing rate up to a 12% decline by December 2014, comparted to what they would otherwise have been. Reductions were higher among the households of low socioeconomic status, averaging a 9% decline during 2014, and up to a 17% decrease by December 2014 compared with pretax trends.

]]>Christopher Snowdon is the Head of Lifestyle Economics for the right-leaning Institute of Economic Affairs; he also writes for Spectator […]Christopher Snowdon is the Head of Lifestyle Economics for the right-leaning Institute of Economic Affairs; he also writes for Spectator […]Challenging Opinions >>clean24:40Uncategorizedhttp://podcast.challengingopinions.com/2017/05/19/co031-christopher-snowdon-on-fighting-obesity/CO030 Ben Orlin on Teaching Mathshttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ChallengingOpinions/~3/POIzdxdxnVA/
Wed, 17 May 2017 09:00:44 +0000podcast@ChallengingOpinions.com (William Campbell)http://podcast.challengingopinions.com/?p=304Ben Orlin is a math teacher and the writer of the author of the Math With Bad Drawings blog.
]]>Ben Orlin is a math teacher and the writer of the author of the Math With Bad Drawings blog.Ben Orlin is a math teacher and the writer of the author of the Math With Bad Drawings blog.Challenging Opinions >>clean16:04Uncategorizedhttp://podcast.challengingopinions.com/2017/05/17/co030-ben-orlin-on-teaching-maths/CO029 Rebecca Lemke on Purity Culturehttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ChallengingOpinions/~3/Aube0BLiws8/
Mon, 15 May 2017 09:00:49 +0000podcast@ChallengingOpinions.com (William Campbell)http://podcast.challengingopinions.com/?p=299Rebecca Lemke’s book, The Scarlet Virgins will be published soon. You can read about it, and her on her blog here, or on Facebook here.

I’ve been looking at the news coming out of the white house and thinking of something that the alt-right blogger, Vox Day predicted about the way that the news media would report goings on in the Trump administration. Recently we’ve had the firing of F.B.I. Director James Comey, before that we’ve had the reported rivalry between Jared Kushner and Steve Bannon, the firing of Michael Flynn, and if I was Seán Spicer, I wouldn’t be making any long term career plans just yet.

I actually sort of agree with Vox Day there, that turbulence is not a sign of failure, and that trying things and dropping them quickly if they don’t work is a good management strategy. People can laugh at Trump Steaks and Trump Vodka, but Trump is rich. Sure, he’s tried a lot of businesses that didn’t work out, but on the whole he has ended up way ahead. One of the reasons that he’s still rich was that he didn’t cleave on to failing businesses. And that’s a good strategy.

Nobody can expect to never make a mistake. But if you are the sort of person to recognise when you are doing something wrong and stop, then you are more likely to be successful.

But hang on. Sure, giving up on lost causes is a good idea. It reduces losses. But just reducing losses isn’t enough. If you want to successful, you have to also have some wins.

Trump made big promises during the election campaign. That was one of the reasons that he won, other politicians were nervous to make big promises because their political experience told them to be cautious in what they promised.

Trump promised big, not just his specific promises like the wall, but other more implied ones like bringing work back to the rust belt from China or Mexico or wherever. There are going to be a lot of very annoyed people if those promises don’t follow through; the message from the White House that all the personnel stories are side shows. Maybe they are, but if Trump doesn’t put a performance on the main stage, that might not be enough of a line to tell for too much longer.

]]>Rebecca Lemke’s book, The Scarlet Virgins will be published soon. You can read about it, and her on her blog […]Rebecca Lemke’s book, The Scarlet Virgins will be published soon. You can read about it, and her on her blog […]Challenging Opinions >>clean21:23Uncategorizedhttp://podcast.challengingopinions.com/2017/05/15/co029-rebecca-lemke-on-purity-culture/CO028 John Iadarola talks to Challenging Opinionshttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ChallengingOpinions/~3/RciwVIxPd-c/
Fri, 12 May 2017 09:00:34 +0000podcast@ChallengingOpinions.com (William Campbell)http://podcast.challengingopinions.com/?p=295John Iadarola is a co-presenter of The Young Turks and a presenter of Think Tank.

In our discussion, we referred to the Backfire Effect which was documented in a study by Brendan Nyhan and Jason Reifler, which found that people with invested political opinions tend to believe them even more strongly when confronted with refuting evidence.

We also talked about a Fairleigh Dickinson University study which showed that Fox News and MSNBC viewers not only scored much lower on their knowledge of current affairs than viewers of other news sources, but also scored lower than people who did not watch any news at all.

]]>John Iadarola is a co-presenter of The Young Turks and a presenter of Think Tank. In our discussion, we referred to […]John Iadarola is a co-presenter of The Young Turks and a presenter of Think Tank. In our discussion, we referred to […]Challenging Opinions >>clean19:23Uncategorizedhttp://podcast.challengingopinions.com/2017/05/12/co028-john-iadarola-talks-to-challenging-opinions/CO027 Todd Feinburg on the Necessity of Governmenthttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ChallengingOpinions/~3/BlZBze2YPWw/
Wed, 10 May 2017 09:00:45 +0000podcast@ChallengingOpinions.com (William Campbell)http://podcast.challengingopinions.com/?p=278Todd Feinburg is a conservative radio host and presenter of the Harvard Lunch Club podcast. Follow him on Twitter or @ToddTalk.
]]>Todd Feinburg is a conservative radio host and presenter of the Harvard Lunch Club podcast. Follow him on Twitter or […]Todd Feinburg is a conservative radio host and presenter of the Harvard Lunch Club podcast. Follow him on Twitter or […]Challenging Opinions >>clean23:41Uncategorizedhttp://podcast.challengingopinions.com/2017/05/10/co027-todd-feinburg-on-the-necessity-of-government/CO026 Chris Tatem on Legalizing Prostitutionhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ChallengingOpinions/~3/ZkyMi5x1dzI/
Mon, 08 May 2017 09:00:01 +0000podcast@ChallengingOpinions.com (William Campbell)http://podcast.challengingopinions.com/?p=283Chris Tatem is the presenter of the Cross Examined Life podcast. We talked about the Swedish model for prohibiting the purchase, but not the sale of sex by prostitutes, particularly in relation to the paper How to Argue About Prostitution by Michelle Madden Dempsey.
]]>Chris Tatem is the presenter of the Cross Examined Life podcast. We talked about the Swedish model for prohibiting the […]Chris Tatem is the presenter of the Cross Examined Life podcast. We talked about the Swedish model for prohibiting the […]Challenging Opinions >>clean28:11Uncategorizedhttp://podcast.challengingopinions.com/2017/05/08/co026-chris-tatem-on-legalizing-prostitution/CO025 Doug Payton on the Electoral Collegehttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ChallengingOpinions/~3/qOsikQKW2jQ/
Fri, 05 May 2017 09:00:04 +0000podcast@ChallengingOpinions.com (William Campbell)http://podcast.challengingopinions.com/?p=289Doug Payton is the presenter of the Consider This podcast, and he also co-presents Person of Interest and Chester’s Mill Gazette for Golden Spiral Media.

]]>Doug Payton is the presenter of the Consider This podcast, and he also co-presents Person of Interest and Chester’s Mill […]Doug Payton is the presenter of the Consider This podcast, and he also co-presents Person of Interest and Chester’s Mill […]Challenging Opinions >>clean35:09Uncategorizedhttp://podcast.challengingopinions.com/2017/05/05/co025-doug-payton-on-the-electoral-college/CO024 Spocko on Data Privacy Rightshttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ChallengingOpinions/~3/l30utaMRC2I/
Wed, 03 May 2017 09:00:20 +0000podcast@ChallengingOpinions.com (William Campbell)http://podcast.challengingopinions.com/?p=274Spocko writes the blog SpockosBrain.com. In our discussion we discussed the Ashley Madison hack, and the exposure of the Hacking Team‘s client list.

]]>Spocko writes the blog SpockosBrain.com. In our discussion we discussed the Ashley Madison hack, and the exposure of the Hacking […]Spocko writes the blog SpockosBrain.com. In our discussion we discussed the Ashley Madison hack, and the exposure of the Hacking […]Challenging Opinions >>clean17:34Uncategorizedhttp://podcast.challengingopinions.com/2017/05/03/co024-spocko-on-data-privacy-rights/CO023 Rodney Perry on Race and Oppressionhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ChallengingOpinions/~3/AWRsbJ8BeUg/
Mon, 01 May 2017 09:00:34 +0000podcast@ChallengingOpinions.com (William Campbell)http://podcast.challengingopinions.com/?p=270Rodney Perry is a writer, photographer and presenter of the Life as King podcast.

One of the things that I mentioned in our discussion was the Oppression Olympics, you can watch it here.

]]>Rodney Perry is a writer, photographer and presenter of the Life as King podcast. One of the things that I […]Rodney Perry is a writer, photographer and presenter of the Life as King podcast. One of the things that I […]Challenging Opinions >>clean25:06Uncategorizedhttp://podcast.challengingopinions.com/2017/05/01/co023-rodney-perry-on-race-and-oppression/CO022 Claire Berlinski on Margaret Thatcherhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ChallengingOpinions/~3/rhfsk-wBMSg/
Fri, 28 Apr 2017 09:00:28 +0000podcast@ChallengingOpinions.com (William Campbell)http://podcast.challengingopinions.com/?p=267Claire Berlinski is a journalist, academic and author. She has lived and worked in Thailand, Laos, Turkey and France, an an academic for the American Foreign Policy Council and the Manhattan Institute.

]]>Claire Berlinski is a journalist, academic and author. She has lived and worked in Thailand, Laos, Turkey and France, an […]Claire Berlinski is a journalist, academic and author. She has lived and worked in Thailand, Laos, Turkey and France, an […]Challenging Opinions >>clean26:09Uncategorizedhttp://podcast.challengingopinions.com/2017/04/28/co022-claire-berlinski-on-margaret-thatcher/CO021 Julio Ricardo Varela on Hispanics in Americahttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ChallengingOpinions/~3/hIMGeoOK7DQ/
Wed, 26 Apr 2017 09:00:40 +0000podcast@ChallengingOpinions.com (William Campbell)http://podcast.challengingopinions.com/?p=259Julio Ricardo Varela a co-host of the In The Thick podcast and a frequent contributor to other media including LatinoUSA.

]]>Julio Ricardo Varela a co-host of the In The Thick podcast and a frequent contributor to other media including LatinoUSA. […]Julio Ricardo Varela a co-host of the In The Thick podcast and a frequent contributor to other media including LatinoUSA. […]Challenging Opinions >>clean23:54Uncategorizedhttp://podcast.challengingopinions.com/2017/04/26/co021-julio-ricardo-varela-on-hispanics-in-america/CO020 Joel Pollak on How Trump Wonhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ChallengingOpinions/~3/I_6nE8C8Lo8/
Mon, 24 Apr 2017 09:00:02 +0000podcast@ChallengingOpinions.com (William Campbell)http://podcast.challengingopinions.com/?p=255Joel Pollak is the senior-editor-at-large for Breitbart News. He was the Republican candidate for U.S. Congress from Illinois’s 9th congressional district in 2010.

He wrote the book How Trump Won based on his experiences following Donald Trump on the campaign trail.

]]>Joel Pollak is the senior-editor-at-large for Breitbart News. He was the Republican candidate for U.S. Congress from Illinois’s 9th congressional […]Joel Pollak is the senior-editor-at-large for Breitbart News. He was the Republican candidate for U.S. Congress from Illinois’s 9th congressional […]Challenging Opinions >>clean22:44Uncategorizedhttp://podcast.challengingopinions.com/2017/04/24/co020-joel-pollak-on-how-trump-won/CO019 Larry Erickson on the American Lefthttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ChallengingOpinions/~3/M4vZqLKpm6w/
Fri, 21 Apr 2017 09:00:07 +0000podcast@ChallengingOpinions.com (William Campbell)http://podcast.challengingopinions.com/?p=251Larry Erickson is the author of the blog Lotus – Surviving a Dark Time, and the presenter of Left Side of the Aisle show, and we discussed this blog post of his in particular.
]]>Larry Erickson is the author of the blog Lotus – Surviving a Dark Time, and the presenter of Left Side of […]Larry Erickson is the author of the blog Lotus – Surviving a Dark Time, and the presenter of Left Side of […]Challenging Opinions >>clean32:47Uncategorizedhttp://podcast.challengingopinions.com/2017/04/21/co019-larry-erickson-on-the-american-left/CO018 Virginia Postrel on Donating a Kidneyhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ChallengingOpinions/~3/JagXdSIuFgE/
Wed, 19 Apr 2017 09:00:10 +0000podcast@ChallengingOpinions.com (William Campbell)http://podcast.challengingopinions.com/?p=247Virginia Postrel is an author and columnist.

]]>Virginia Postrel is an author and columnist. She writes for Bloomberg View and we talked about this column of hers. […]Virginia Postrel is an author and columnist. She writes for Bloomberg View and we talked about this column of hers. […]Challenging Opinions >>clean24:33Uncategorizedhttp://podcast.challengingopinions.com/2017/04/19/co018-virginia-postrel-on-donating-a-kidney/CO017 Jennifer Briney on the ‘Congressional Dish’http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ChallengingOpinions/~3/wcpH-23drNI/
Mon, 17 Apr 2017 09:00:11 +0000podcast@ChallengingOpinions.com (William Campbell)http://podcast.challengingopinions.com/?p=244Jennifer Briney is the presenter of the excellent Congressional Dish podcast.

In our discussion, we talked about the STOCK act which concerns transparency for how elected officials vote on issues that affect stocks they hold. She exposed how it was hobbled to prevent easy access by citizens.

]]>Jennifer Briney is the presenter of the excellent Congressional Dish podcast. In our discussion, we talked about the STOCK act which […]Jennifer Briney is the presenter of the excellent Congressional Dish podcast. In our discussion, we talked about the STOCK act which […]Challenging Opinions >>clean22:25Uncategorizedhttp://podcast.challengingopinions.com/2017/04/17/co017-jennifer-briney-on-the-congressional-dish/CO016 Michael Tobis on the Science of Climate Changehttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ChallengingOpinions/~3/StOEbCpqjJQ/
Fri, 14 Apr 2017 09:00:35 +0000podcast@ChallengingOpinions.com (William Campbell)http://podcast.challengingopinions.com/?p=240Michael Tobis is the author of In It for the Gold, and has a PhD in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
]]>Michael Tobis is the author of In It for the Gold, and has a PhD in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences from […]Michael Tobis is the author of In It for the Gold, and has a PhD in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences from […]Challenging Opinions >>clean21:37Uncategorizedhttp://podcast.challengingopinions.com/2017/04/14/co016-michael-tobis-on-the-science-of-climate-change/CO015 Julie Davis on Being a Catholichttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ChallengingOpinions/~3/jCj2wjC0piI/
Wed, 12 Apr 2017 09:00:26 +0000podcast@ChallengingOpinions.com (William Campbell)http://podcast.challengingopinions.com/?p=192Julie Davis is a presenter of the podcast A Good Story is Hard to Find and the author of the Happy Catholic blog.

Information on John Paul II and Benedict XVI instructing bishops to protect child abusers and not report them to police is here and here. The pattern appears to be continuing.

]]>Julie Davis is a presenter of the podcast A Good Story is Hard to Find and the author of the Happy […]Julie Davis is a presenter of the podcast A Good Story is Hard to Find and the author of the Happy […]Challenging Opinions >>clean28:08Uncategorizedhttp://podcast.challengingopinions.com/2017/04/12/co015-julie-davis-on-being-a-catholic/CO014 Nathan Damigo on White Nationalism Part 2http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ChallengingOpinions/~3/ZnCsUd6zZNc/
Mon, 10 Apr 2017 09:00:46 +0000podcast@ChallengingOpinions.com (William Campbell)http://podcast.challengingopinions.com/?p=186Nathan Damigo is the founder of Identity Evropa, and he and his organisation have widely been accused of racism, which he denies.

This is part two of the interview which began last Monday. You can hear part one here.

]]>Nathan Damigo is the founder of Identity Evropa, and he and his organisation have widely been accused of racism, which he […]Nathan Damigo is the founder of Identity Evropa, and he and his organisation have widely been accused of racism, which he […]Challenging Opinions >>clean31:31Uncategorizedhttp://podcast.challengingopinions.com/2017/04/10/co014-nathan-damigo-on-white-nationalism-part-2/CO013 Rob Morse on Guns and Safetyhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ChallengingOpinions/~3/L_s9n0nZoD4/
Fri, 07 Apr 2017 09:00:17 +0000podcast@ChallengingOpinions.com (William Campbell)http://podcast.challengingopinions.com/?p=182Rob Morse is the author of Slow Facts and co-host of the Polite Society podcast.

I referred to this Swiss study which concluded “The restriction of firearm availability in Switzerland resulting from the Army XXI reform was followed by an enduring decrease in the general suicide rate.”

Rob and I disagreed on international crime rates. These rates are difficult to compare because of the different practices in reporting and recording crimes. Serious crimes give the most valid comparison because they are nearly always reported, and are considered crimes in all jurisdictions. The United States has a murder rate of 4.7, which is much lower than some Third World world countries, but the highest of any major developed country. Ireland has a murder rate of 1.2; source.

Rob and I differed on the ability of a ‘good guy with a gun to stop a bad guy with a gun‘. This was in the context of NRA president, Wayne LaPierre’s reaction to several mass shootings, saying that armed civilians can make society safer. Rob cited several examples from his page Saved by a Good Person with a Gun, which lists 10 examples. However, only four cases (10, 9, 4, 2) actually claim to be an incident where an American civilian with a gun stopped a shooting, and none meet the definition of a mass shooting, four or more victims shot in a single incident, although it is reasonable to think that they might have, without an intervention.

Rob doesn’t provide links, though I am happy to accept his word. However, to collect those four examples, Rob has to go back over almost 20 years, and by the stricter definition there have been many thousands of mass shootings in the US in that period, now at a rate of almost one per day. Four incidents is a vanishingly small proportion of gun crime. Rob makes the point:

We seldom see a ‘mass shooting’ when an armed civilian intervenes in an attempted public violence. The civilian stops the murderer before 4 people get killed. The average being 2.3 dead if a civilian on the scene intervenes, versus 14.3 dead if no armed civilian is present and the murders proceed until the police arrive.

It is certainly valid to count incidents where an attacker is stopped by a civilian and set them against mass shootings with more casualties because nobody intervened. I don’t know the source of the figures he quotes, and I acknowledge that it is possible to end up with a different dataset by changing the criteria, but accepting all of the incidents he cites over the past 20 years, they don’t indicate that armed civilians can provide much protection from the rate of one mass shooting per day in the US in recent years.

This is the Democracy Index, ranking countries by the quality of their democracy. It is clear that there is no correlation between liberal gun laws and the quality of the democracy.

I overstated Somalia’s level of gun prevalence, it has about one gun for every 10 people.

]]>Rob Morse is the author of Slow Facts and co-host of the Polite Society podcast. I referred to this Swiss study which […]Rob Morse is the author of Slow Facts and co-host of the Polite Society podcast. I referred to this Swiss study which […]Challenging Opinions >>clean32:19Uncategorizedhttp://podcast.challengingopinions.com/2017/04/07/co013-rob-morse-on-guns-and-safety/CO012 Rob Lyons on Food Scareshttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ChallengingOpinions/~3/ZMBpBSTzxpY/
Wed, 05 Apr 2017 09:00:23 +0000podcast@ChallengingOpinions.com (William Campbell)http://podcast.challengingopinions.com/?p=178Rob Lyons is the writer of the blog Panic on a Plate, and he wrote the book of the same name, which is availaible on Amazon.

In the interview, we talked about this article in the UK Daily Telegraph which talked about taking ‘Best Before’ dates off some food products such as salt and pasta in the European Union because those products have very long shelf lives.

]]>Rob Lyons is the writer of the blog Panic on a Plate, and he wrote the book of the same name, which is […]Rob Lyons is the writer of the blog Panic on a Plate, and he wrote the book of the same name, which is […]Challenging Opinions >>clean22:26Uncategorizedhttp://podcast.challengingopinions.com/2017/04/05/co012-rob-lyons-on-food-scares/CO011 Nathan Damigo on White Nationalism – Part 1http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ChallengingOpinions/~3/TnWZVAqKcPs/
Mon, 03 Apr 2017 09:00:07 +0000podcast@ChallengingOpinions.com (William Campbell)http://podcast.challengingopinions.com/?p=175Nathan Damigo is the founder of Identity Evropa, and he and his organisation have widely been accused of racism, which he denies.

In November 2007, [Damigo] had been home for a month after his second tour of duty and was suffering from severe post-traumatic stress disorder, drug and alcohol abuse, paranoia and flashbacks, court records show. A few days after the anniversary of a friend’s combat death, he spent a night drinking and went for a walk with a gun he’d gotten two days before as a gift. He came across a La Mesa cab driver who he thought was Iraqi, put a gun to his head and robbed the man of $43, records show.

He was convicted of armed robbery and spent a year in county jail and four years in prison for the crime.

Part two of this interview will be released next Monday, Apirl 10.

]]>Nathan Damigo is the founder of Identity Evropa, and he and his organisation have widely been accused of racism, which he denies. […]Nathan Damigo is the founder of Identity Evropa, and he and his organisation have widely been accused of racism, which he denies. […]Challenging Opinions >>clean27:19Uncategorizedhttp://podcast.challengingopinions.com/2017/04/03/co011-nathan-damigo-white-nationalism-part-1/CO010 Leslie Loftis on Being a Conservative Womanhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ChallengingOpinions/~3/8JjFkqvM2xI/
Fri, 31 Mar 2017 09:00:00 +0000podcast@ChallengingOpinions.com (William Campbell)http://podcast.challengingopinions.com/?p=172Leslie Loftis blogs at an American Housewife in Texas, and also writes for PJ Media.
]]>Leslie Loftis blogs at an American Housewife in Texas, and also writes for PJ Media.Leslie Loftis blogs at an American Housewife in Texas, and also writes for PJ Media.Challenging Opinions >>clean19:31Uncategorizedhttp://podcast.challengingopinions.com/2017/03/31/co010-leslie-loftis-on-being-a-conservative-woman/CO009 Chris Kelly on America’s Military Advenutreshttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ChallengingOpinions/~3/py6Q9kNLy20/
Wed, 29 Mar 2017 09:00:37 +0000podcast@ChallengingOpinions.com (William Campbell)http://podcast.challengingopinions.com/?p=168Chris Kelly is the coauthor of the books Italy Invades and America Invades. He’s also writes the American Conservative in London blog.

]]>Chris Kelly is the coauthor of the books Italy Invades and America Invades. He’s also writes the American Conservative in London […]Chris Kelly is the coauthor of the books Italy Invades and America Invades. He’s also writes the American Conservative in London […]Challenging Opinions >>clean18:57Uncategorizedhttp://podcast.challengingopinions.com/2017/03/29/co009-chris-kelly-on-americas-military-advenutres/CO008 John Snider on Reforming Islamhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ChallengingOpinions/~3/c6yX5tg2Lvk/
Mon, 27 Mar 2017 09:00:08 +0000podcast@ChallengingOpinions.com (William Campbell)http://podcast.challengingopinions.com/?p=165John Snider is a member of American Atheists, and a prominent member of the Atlanta Freethought Society. He’s also a celebrant with the Humanist Society which means he conducts weddings and other ceremonies. He’s also a prolific writer including for Skeptic, for Secular Nation, and for Philosophy Now, as well as being the founder of the American Free Thought Blog.

]]>John Snider is a member of American Atheists, and a prominent member of the Atlanta Freethought Society. He’s also a […]John Snider is a member of American Atheists, and a prominent member of the Atlanta Freethought Society. He’s also a […]Challenging Opinions >>clean20:37Uncategorizedhttp://podcast.challengingopinions.com/2017/03/27/co008-john-snider-on-reforming-islam/CO007 Dr Jerome Huyler on Abolishing Welfarehttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ChallengingOpinions/~3/6yH9Iz8M_C4/
Fri, 24 Mar 2017 08:06:11 +0000podcast@ChallengingOpinions.com (William Campbell)http://podcast.challengingopinions.com/?p=160Dr Jerome Huyler is the author of Everything You Have: The Case Against Welfare and Locke in America: The Moral Philosophy of the Founding Era. He is also a former assistant professor at Seton Hall University.
]]>Dr Jerome Huyler is the author of Everything You Have: The Case Against Welfare and Locke in America: The Moral Philosophy […]Dr Jerome Huyler is the author of Everything You Have: The Case Against Welfare and Locke in America: The Moral Philosophy […]Challenging Opinions >>clean16:29Uncategorizedhttp://podcast.challengingopinions.com/2017/03/24/co007-dr-jerome-huyler-on-abolishing-welfare/CO006 Dr Robert Waldmann on Healthcare Economicshttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ChallengingOpinions/~3/cJWA6EZl4Kc/
Fri, 24 Mar 2017 08:05:48 +0000podcast@ChallengingOpinions.com (William Campbell)http://podcast.challengingopinions.com/?p=139Dr Robert Waldmann is a professor of economics at the University of Rome Tor Vergata and he’s the editor of the Angry Bear blog.

]]>Dr Robert Waldmann is a professor of economics at the University of Rome Tor Vergata and he’s the editor of the Angry Bear blog. […]Dr Robert Waldmann is a professor of economics at the University of Rome Tor Vergata and he’s the editor of the Angry Bear blog. […]Challenging Opinions >>clean21:39Uncategorizedhttp://podcast.challengingopinions.com/2017/03/24/dr-robert-waldmann-talks-to-challenging-opinions/CO005 Vox Day on Sam Harris and Ethicshttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ChallengingOpinions/~3/pcZiOwf_ovY/
Fri, 24 Mar 2017 08:04:08 +0000podcast@ChallengingOpinions.com (William Campbell)http://podcast.challengingopinions.com/?p=136Vox Day writes the blog Vox Popoli. This is a reference to the No True Scotsman fallacy that I mentioned in the discussion.
]]>Vox Day writes the blog Vox Popoli. This is a reference to the No True Scotsman fallacy that I mentioned in […]Vox Day writes the blog Vox Popoli. This is a reference to the No True Scotsman fallacy that I mentioned in […]Challenging Opinions >>clean17:15Uncategorizedhttp://podcast.challengingopinions.com/2017/03/24/vox-day-talks-to-challenging-opinions-about-sam-harris-and-ethics/CO004 Eric Schansberg on Libertarianismhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ChallengingOpinions/~3/xXR1xYFx43M/
Fri, 24 Mar 2017 08:03:55 +0000podcast@ChallengingOpinions.com (William Campbell)http://podcast.challengingopinions.com/?p=129Eric Schansberg is writer of the SchansBlog. He was a Libertarian candidate for the US Congress, and he’s the author of the books Turn Neither to the Right Nor to the Left, Poor Policy: How Government Harms the Poor and Inheriting the Promised Land: Lessons in Victorious Christian Living from the Book of Joshua.

]]>Eric Schansberg is writer of the SchansBlog. He was a Libertarian candidate for the US Congress, and he’s the author of […]Eric Schansberg is writer of the SchansBlog. He was a Libertarian candidate for the US Congress, and he’s the author of […]Challenging Opinions >>clean17:34Uncategorizedhttp://podcast.challengingopinions.com/2017/03/24/eric-schansberg-talks-to-challenging-opinions/CO003 RiShawn Biddle on Education Reformhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ChallengingOpinions/~3/I3t3azsMn80/
Fri, 24 Mar 2017 08:02:06 +0000podcast@ChallengingOpinions.com (William Campbell)http://podcast.challengingopinions.com/?p=127RiShawn Biddle is the editor of DropoutNation.net, the leading online outlet covering and commenting on American public education and school reform. In the piece we mentioned the book Freakonomics.
]]>RiShawn Biddle is the editor of DropoutNation.net, the leading online outlet covering and commenting on American public education and school […]RiShawn Biddle is the editor of DropoutNation.net, the leading online outlet covering and commenting on American public education and school […]Challenging Opinions >>clean12:03Uncategorizedhttp://podcast.challengingopinions.com/2017/03/24/rishawn-biddle-talks-to-challenging-opinions-about-education-reform/CO002 Ali Sina on Leaving Islamhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ChallengingOpinions/~3/usdU0Y7Pyh0/
Fri, 24 Mar 2017 08:01:51 +0000podcast@ChallengingOpinions.com (William Campbell)http://podcast.challengingopinions.com/?p=124Ali Sina is a former Muslim, originally from Iran, and he’s the editor of FaithFreedom.org.
]]>Ali Sina is a former Muslim, originally from Iran, and he’s the editor of FaithFreedom.org.Ali Sina is a former Muslim, originally from Iran, and he’s the editor of FaithFreedom.org.Challenging Opinions >>clean15:10Uncategorizedhttp://podcast.challengingopinions.com/2017/03/24/ali-sina-talks-to-challenging-opinions-about-leaving-islam/CO001 Dr Mark Thornton on Austrian Economicshttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ChallengingOpinions/~3/SS44_y2tPYU/
Fri, 24 Mar 2017 08:00:03 +0000podcast@ChallengingOpinions.com (William Campbell)http://podcast.challengingopinions.com/?p=119Dr Mark Thornton is an economist with the Mises Institute, which is named after the Austrian economist, Ludwig von Mises, who was one of the inspirations for the Austrian school of economics.

]]>Dr Mark Thornton is an economist with the Mises Institute, which is named after the Austrian economist, Ludwig von Mises, who was […]Dr Mark Thornton is an economist with the Mises Institute, which is named after the Austrian economist, Ludwig von Mises, who was […]Challenging Opinions >>clean20:09Uncategorizedhttp://podcast.challengingopinions.com/2017/03/24/dr-mark-thornton-talks-to-challenging-opinions-about-austrian-economics/William Campbellnonadultwith William Campbell